Why Customer Service Matters – Restaurant Advice That Will Change Your Business

– If somebody goes to a
restaurant for the first time and has a flawless experience, the statistical likelihood of them doing a second visit is about 40 percent. They come back
– [Caller] Yeah, I believe that too – the second time
– [Caller] yeah – And have a flawless experience, the statistical likelihood
of a third visit is still about 42 percent. The third time they come, the statistical likelihood
of a fourth visit is over 70 percent. So,
– [Caller] wow. – You gotta mark it to
three visits, not one. Visit one free rib dinner
– [Caller] wow. You sit ’em down,
– [Caller] yeah. – Put a red napkin on the
table, not a white one. Identify them as a first time customer, connect with them, and
work to get ’em back a second time and a third time. Once they’re there the third time, you own ’em. – My man Chandler
– [Caller] Oh, the red napkin thing is genuis, ’cause in
the fast casual environment we’re not hitting that table side, but – Let me give you
– [Caller] ’cause it’s – Chandler,
– can I detail that for him? – Go ahead, go ahead. – Okay, so you put a
red napkin at the table. Gary sits down, he’s eating dinner, now he’s getting his free rib dinner, his water costs him nothing. I know he’s a first time customer, ’cause he’s got a red napkin. When he’s leaving, and the
manager comes to the table, writes on the back of a business card, five dollars off chicken. “Did you like the ribs?” “loved ’em” “you gotta try my chicken,
come in for the chicken” now I’m prompting a second visit. Not with a printed coupon,
but a hand-written card. Now he comes in for the second visit, drops the business card on the table, everybody knows this is the second visit, ’cause red napkin was the first visit. Second visit, you finish the meal, you go up, you say, “so how was the chicken?” “it was frickin’ great!” “are you full?” “totally stuffed” “man, next time you
gotta try my cheesecake” free piece of cheesecake. Now, three visits, ribs
– wait, a pizza? – [Chandler] A piece of cheesecake. – Oh, a pizza flavored cheesecake, I was like “that’s f___ brilliant” – So the rib dinner costs me five dollars. The chicken was a wash out,
’cause it was a discount, – That’s right. – The cheesecake was $1.35. For about six dollars, you
got three visits out of him with a 70 percent likelihood of a fourth. That’s the way you mark at a restaurant, within four walls of it. – [Caller] That is huge right there. – Chandler – [Caller] That’s why you are the best. – Chandler, let me give you, listen. Let me give you one more
for the road, mister. There was a very interesting
thing that John said. Because I grew up in that environment too, and John’s from the
traditional marketing world that we grew up in,
pulling from his world. Notice how he said, first time customer, I’ll give it to you. Because the traditional
retail and bar thing is like, look, it’s more expensive, if you’ve already got
somebody in the funnel, the cost of acquisition for a new buddy is very very very powerful. I used to do that too,
but it was tricky, right? Because now some of
your old time customers may see that, and they’ve got that angst of “wait a minute, why am I
being not treated that way, as a loyal customer, you
just want new people” and it’s always been a
friction for us, right? Now, I just went to Instagram, right? I typed in Lexington, Kentucky. Got it? – [Caller] Yessir. – I’m looking at nine posts right now, that are top posts, and ungodly amounts, unlimited
amounts of people’s posts that are from Lexington, Kentucky, I went all the way down, and
that’s from 48 minutes ago. 40 pictures down, 48 minutes ago. Thousands of people are
posting right now on Instagram from Lexington, Kentucky. I go to the top nine posts. I click the middle one, it’s
a nice little cute couple. They got 298 likes. Abby, she’s got, she’s from somewhere, she’s part of a sorority it looks like. She has 2,387 followers. There’s a triple dot in the
top right corner on Instagram. I hit it, it lets me send her a message. I send her a message, “Abby,
see you’re in Lexington. We love being part of Lexington. Here’s a 20 dollar off
coupon, 10 dollar off coupon, free chicken”, only she sees it. You’re grabbing somebody who
has a big social media profile. You’ve not hurt any of
your loyal customers like me and John had to back in the day, she comes, and she posts
a picture of the food, and creates word of mouth. Now that five dollar acquisition created no friction to loyal customers, and because she’s now media, she amplifies it, and you’re
getting an 80, 500, 4000 dollar media amplification, against
your five f_____ dollars! – And last one thing, don’t discount. People get addicted to discounts, the don’t get addicted to free. – [Gary] That’s right. (jazz music)

I am working with a restaurant that will be opening soon and she is very against the discounts and print coupons also. The Instagram DM offers we have already be thinking about. The red napkin is an awesome idea!

Experience counts in business. Great advice from this well experienced guest and he provided solid value for listeners. I like to hear older guests like this on the show from time to time like Sasha Vaynerchuk, the recent K-Swiss president, etc. They bring a lot to the table. Well done.

I got hungry watching this! Imagine the lines around the block to get into @garyvee 's own restaurant! You just know the wine selection would be AMAZING!!! #garyvee #vaynermedia #winelibrary #vaynerestaurant #jontaffer

But wait, didn't he say for new customers, give them a hand written discount toward the chicken or whichever food they decide?.. Then he says dont give discounts?.. Not discrediting his advice, because its clearly golden advice. But im just wondering if something flew over my head here or?..

opportunity cost is way to big. pretend if all the meals they will eat cost 20 euros

if there are 1000 customers the first time he will not only lose the money that he used to buy ingredients but he will also lose the opportunitie to make money. this would mean he would have a appotunity cost of 20000 euros.

the second time there will only be 400 customers that returned, he will discound the chicken, thats 5 euros. whitch means he will earn 6000 euros the second day

the third day,only 168 returned customers remaining, he will discount the pie. lets say it costs 3 euros. he will make 2856 euros that day.

the customers will be very happy. but do you think he will be content after the last day? he could have made 20000 euros the first day but instead he only made 8856 euros in three days.

good customers service isnt giving away food. good customers service is being friendly and being patient whit your customers. you can give a discount on the first day, just dont make your opportunity cost to big.

A customer that never says THANK YOU even when you put additional extra items in purchasing. So I don't need this type of customer. A customer that orders to make a custom item, after it's done, the person does not buy, disappears, don't respond. I have to blame myself for being too nice. Next time, I will ask to pay in advance for a custom order, next time I won't pay additional item in the purchasing to compensate the customer for 1 day late for the shipping. If I knew the customer would not say thank you for the extra item, I would cancel the purchasing and give her the refund. I told her the shipping will be late due to special circumstances: You have 2 options. I cancel the purchasing or I ship late with a sweet compensation. She opted for the 2nd option. I lost by compensating her just to keep the integrity of the busines. I should just have canceled and refund her. The lost would be zero. But anyway, next time I will also say. The shipping can be from 1 day to 10 days. I used to say from 1 day to 5 days. I am tired of being nice. I just hate being disappointed by jerks.

Restaurant does not need to go that far to keep abuser customer. If a restaurant has good food where you see people lining up, the restaurant does not need to be on customer mercy such as giving discount, free meal etc.